Low-tech warning came too late for slain N.Y. cops
NEW YORK – After Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot his ex-girlfriend and posted an online death threat against police, investigators in Maryland used modern cellphone tracking technology to follow his journey to New York City in real time.
But when it came to giving the New York Police Department specifics about Brinsley, the means were markedly low-tech: a phone call and a wanted flier sent by fax.
That warning came too late, sent a mere two minutes before Brinsley walked up to a patrol car and shot two officers dead without warning.
Police on both ends say they took immediate and proper measures to try to alert officers about an armed and dangerous fugitive bent on violence against law enforcement. But the seemingly antiquated way they did it has raised questions about the potential for communication lapses to hamper urgent manhunts.
Though refusing to fault how the warning was handled, Police Commissioner William Bratton has called it “an irony” the ambush occurred at a time when the NYPD has launched a $160 million program to equip each member of the 35,000-officer force with a department-issued computer tablet or smartphone to improve information-sharing.
Smaller police forces have gone to blasting notifications to department-issued smartphones, but most larger ones say to do the same would be too expensive.
In the case of Brinsley, it’s impossible to know whether an earlier warning would have made a difference.
Still, NYPD officials conceded that there also room for improvement in how police departments share information with each other – a lesson learned during the 10-day rampage across Southern California by former police Officer Christopher Dorner in February 2013.
A report by the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation found communication and coordination problems between at least a half-dozen regional law enforcement agencies impeded efforts to stop Dorner.
The Police Foundation report called for regional agencies to upgrade their communication systems so officers in different departments can talk to one another.
According to an official timeline in the Brinsley episode, Baltimore County police began tracking him early Saturday with precision thanks to the GPS transmitter on a cellphone.
Police say a flier with Brinsley’s photo was faxed, at the NYPD’s request, to a Brooklyn command at 2:46 p.m. It warned that he was in Brooklyn, armed with a semi-automatic handgun and was saying online that “he will shoot a police officer today.”
Two minutes later, Brinsley opened fire.